Chinese/English vocabulary learning tool

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a methodology for helping a student to learn vocabulary in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, and Pin Yin. The present invention comprises a Selection Program (SP), a Testing Program (TP), and a Character Sizing Program (CSP). The SP allows the user to select a Chinese-English textbook chapter, a question language, and an answer language. The SP then displays the chapter vocabulary for review and runs the TP. The TP calculates the probability factors for the vocabulary terms and determines a question to ask. The TP uses two Unicode tables to check to see if the answer is correct. The TP decrements the probability factor for wrong answers and increments the probability factor for right answers. The TP ends when all of the probability factors are equal to one. The CSP changes the font size of the Chinese characters.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a method for helping teach Chinese,English, and Pin Yin vocabulary.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Sino-Tibetan based languages, such as Chinese, are vastly different thanLatin based languages such as English. The Chinese language does notcontain an alphabet. Instead, the Chinese language comprises more than60,000 individual characters. Each of the 60,000 characters has adifferent meaning. Knowledge of about 1,200 characters is sufficient toread a Chinese newspaper. Chinese college graduates know about 3,000characters.

Chinese also differs from Latin based languages in the concept of aword. In Chinese, strings of characters do not contain spaces and theinterpretation of where one word ends and another starts is entirelybased on context. Chinese characters are very precise in meaning,pronunciation, and in the way they are written. If a Chinese characterhas characters added to it in a string, the meaning of the firstcharacter is enhanced, but normally it is not changed.

Chinese characters are always pronounced as a single syllable. There areno two-syllable Chinese characters. Each Chinese character has one offive fundamental sounds. These five fundamental sounds give a singingquality to Chinese because some characters are pronounced with hightones, some with low tones, and some with tones that are rising orfalling. Tone is fundamental to the language and Chinese would not bereadily understood without the tones. For example, the character “ma”can either mean “mother” or “horse” or a “question” depending the tone.In China many dialects are spoken. Spoken words are almostunintelligible from one dialect to the next. However, there is only onewritten Chinese. Written Chinese is understood by all dialects. OtherSino-Tibetan languages such as Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese useseveral characters common to Chinese. However, these languages have nocommon written or spoken meaning, similar to the manner in whichEnglish, Spanish, and French use a common alphabet but are not otherwiseinterchangeable.

Following the Chinese Communist revolution in 1949, the Communist partymade several changes to the Chinese language. First, the traditionalmethod of writing Chinese from “top to bottom” and “right to left” wasabandoned. The Peoples' Republic of China (PRC or mainland China) nowfollows Western languages and is written from “left to right” and then“top to bottom.” Second, a single dialect was chosen, Mandarin, which isnow taught in all schools as the primary Chinese language. Third, thePRC altered about one quarter of the characters to reduce them to aroundseven lines or strokes. This form of Chinese is called “SimplifiedChinese.” In the PRC, Simplified Chinese is now widely used, but theRepublic of China (ROC or Taiwan) and Hong Kong still use the moreelaborate form of Chinese called “Traditional Chinese.” The PRC alsoadopted the Hindu-Arabic numbering system used by most Western countriesand the advent of the Internet is causing English to appear in manyChinese sentences.

The PRC also introduced “Pin Yin,” a phonetic version of Chinese to helpyoung children learn the language. Pin Yin uses the 26 letters of theEnglish alphabet plus 4 accents over certain vowels to indicate how thecharacter should be pronounced. Pin Yin is normally used from about 4years of age until around 7 years of age when the students are taught touse Chinese Characters. Pin Yin is also very helpful for tourists andbusinessmen to speak Chinese from phrase books. Additionally, Pin Yin ispopular with computer users as it is the easiest way to enter Chinesecharacters from a keyboard.

In the computer, all Sino-Tibetan languages are represented by 16-bitcharacters, while English and the other Latin languages are normallyrepresented by 8-bit characters. Traditionally, separate encodings wereproduced for each of the languages. English uses a 7 bit encoding calledASCII. ASCII encoding is included as the first seven bits of all theother encodings. European languages are normally 8 bit encodings andmake use of the eighth bit for their special characters. SimplifiedChinese uses GB2312 encoding and Traditional Chinese uses Big 5encoding. A computer using Big 5 encoding cannot read computer code inGB2312. This multiplicity of encodings is confusing and there is nostandardization between the different encodings. The Unicode consortiumhas developed a single encoding that incorporates all the majorlanguages of the world. There is a strong movement to use Unicode andreplace all the other encodings in computer applications. Unicode uses16 bits for each character inside the computer. Unicode has 65,000different characters and each of the major languages is mapped into adifferent section of this Unicode range. Consequently, Unicode can beused as a single encoding scheme for all of the world's languages.

Chinese characters are encoded entries which can be displayed indifferent font sizes. In other words, a computer may display the Chinesecharacters in different sizes similar to the method by which a computerdisplays English characters and words in different font sizes usingASCII. Changing the font size is very beneficial to students studyingChinese because the students may see the Chinese characters in greaterdetail.

Individual characters, letters, or symbols can be represented usingdifferent schemes within Unicode. Two of the most popular encodingschemes are UTF-8 and UCS-2. UTF-8 is a byte based Unicode encodingscheme which represents each character, letter, or symbol as one, two,or three bytes, each byte being eight bits. In contrast, UCS-2 is 16 bitencoding scheme which represents each character, letter, or symbol as 16bits or four hexadecimal digits. One hexadecimal digit is equivalent to4 bits, and 1 byte can be expressed by two hexadecimal digits. Table 1below displays the difference between UTF-8 and UCS-2.

TABLE 1 UCS-2 (Hexadecimal) UTF-8 (Binary) Description 0000 007F0xxxxxxx ASCII 0080 07FF 110xxxxx 10xxxxxx Up to U+07FF 0800 FFFF1110xxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx Other UCS-2A user may choose to encode using the UCS-2 scheme or the UTF-8 schemedepending on the user's expected needs. For example, when transmittingdata from one location to another, or when storing data in a database,UTF-8 is the preferred encoding scheme due to the transmissionefficiency and the storage efficiency inherent in variable byte streamlength (i.e. 1-3 bytes, as shown in Table 1). However, when holding thesame information in a memory, UCS-2 is the encoding scheme. Conversionfunctions between UCS-2 and UTF-8 are available as evidenced by UnitedStates Patent Application Publication 2003/0078921 entitled “Table-LevelUnicode Handling in a Database Engine,” incorporated herein byreference.

Prior to the development of Unicode, a computerized character translatorbetween Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese within the sameencoding was impossible because of the inability of GB2312 code tounderstand Big 5 code, and vice-versa. If the user desired acomputer-implemented translation, multiple encodings had to be usedwhich did not permit simultaneous display of both forms of data.

Similarly, the prior art translation programs have been unable todisplay Pin Yin with the proper accents. Typically, these programs woulduse pictures in the form of gifs or jpegs to represent the characters.The accented vowels indicate the proper tone and are essential to properpronunciation of Pin Yin. One technique that uses only the ASCIIcharacters is based on adding a number after the Pin Yin word toindicate the accent as illustrated in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Number Accent Description Examples 1   Level Tone ā ē ī ō ū 2{acute over ( )} Rising Tone á é í ó ú 3 {hacek over ( )} Falling Tone,{hacek over (a)} {hacek over (e)} {hacek over (i)} {hacek over (o)}{hacek over (u)} then Rising Tone 4 {grave over ( )} Falling Tone à è ìò ù 5 (None) No Change in Tone a e i o uThus, the prior art would display the word guó as guo2, the word mā asma1, and so forth. The prior art hybrid version of Pin Yin is difficultfor the beginning reader to understand because the reader must make acognitive leap between the number and proper type and location of theaccent. Therefore, a need exists for an automated method for translatingbetween Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Pin Yin, and English.The need extends to a method for displaying the Pin Yin with the properaccent marks.

Moreover, a need exists for assisting students with learning Chinesevocabulary. Chinese textbooks typically contain a plurality of chapterscovering different subjects. Each subject presents twenty to thirtyChinese vocabulary words which are related to the subject. The studentthen uses the vocabulary words by themselves, then in conjunction withvocabulary words from previous chapters. Because of the encodinglimitations, a computer implemented process for assisting in thedevelopment of both Simplified and Traditional Chinese vocabulary hasnot previously been developed. Therefore, a need exists in the art for acomputer-implemented method for helping a student learn SimplifiedChinese, Traditional Chinese, accented Pin Yin and English.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a methodology for helping a student to learnvocabulary in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, and PinYin. The method of the present invention is implementable as a computerprogram on the Internet or on a stand-alone computer. The computerprogram of the present invention comprises a Selection Program (SP), aTesting Program (TP), and a Character Sizing Program (CSP). The SPallows the user to select a Chinese-English textbook chapter, a questionlanguage, and an answer language. The SP then displays the chaptervocabulary for review and runs the TP.

The TP calculates the probability factors for the vocabulary terms anddetermines a question to ask. Each probability factor is initially setto five and the probability factors affect the probability with whicheach vocabulary term appears in a question. The TP then displays thequestion in the question language and the user inputs the answer in theanswer language. The TP uses a Simplified Chinese/Traditional ChineseConversion Table and a Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/English Dictionary,both of which are encoded in Unicode, to check to see if the answer iscorrect. If the user correctly answers the question, the TP decrementsthe probability factor. If the user incorrectly answers the question,the TP increments the probability factor. The TP displays the progresson the screen as the user answers the questions. The TP ends when all ofthe probability factors are equal to one.

The CSP changes the font size of the Chinese characters so that the usermay better distinguish the Characters from one another. The user may runthe CSP at any time during the operation of the TP. After the user hasfinished a chapter, the SP displays the user's progress on a progressscreen.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are setforth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well asa preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, willbest be understood by reference to the following detailed description ofan illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a computer network used to implement thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of the memory used to implement the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of the logic of the Selection Program (SP) ofthe present invention;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the logic of the Testing Program (TP) ofthe present invention;

FIG. 5 is an illustration of the logic of the Character Sizing Program(CSP) of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an illustration of the graphical user interface (GUT) of thepresent invention displaying the user selection screen;

FIG. 7 is an illustration of the GUI of the present invention displayingthe vocabulary review screen;

FIG. 8 is an illustration of the GUI of the present invention displayingthe testing screen for the first question showing a correct answer;

FIG. 9 is an illustration of the GUI of the present invention displayingthe testing screen for the second or subsequent question when theprevious question was answered correctly;

FIG. 10 is an illustration of the GUI of the present inventiondisplaying the testing screen for the first question showing anincorrect answer;

FIG. 11 is an illustration of the GUI of the present inventiondisplaying the testing screen for the second or subsequent question whenthe previous question was answered incorrectly; and

FIG. 12 is an illustration of the GUI of the present inventiondisplaying the user's statistics screen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As used herein, the term “accented Pin Yin” means the Pin Yin phoneticversion of the Chinese language with proper accents over the appropriateRoman letters.

As used herein, the term “ASCII” is an acronym for American StandardCode for Information Interchange and means the encoding language forRoman letters, Arabic numbers, control characters, and the varioussymbols present on a QWERTY keyboard.

As used herein, the term “Big 5” means the encoding language for theTraditional Chinese character set.

As used herein, the term “computer” shall mean a machine having aprocessor, a memory, and an operating system, capable of interactionwith a user or other computer, and shall include without limitationdesktop computers, notebook computers, personal digital assistants(PDAs), servers, handheld computers, and similar devices.

As used herein, the term “GB2312” means the encoding language for theSimplified Chinese character set.

As used herein, the term “hybrid Pin Yin” means the Pin Yin phoneticversion of the Chinese language without proper accents over theappropriate Roman letters, but instead with numbers in or at the end ofthe word to represent the accent marks.

As used herein, the term “unaccented Pin Yin” means the Pin Yin phoneticversion of the Chinese language without proper accents over theappropriate Roman letters.

As used herein, the term “Unicode” means the encoding language developedby the Unicode consortium comprising most of the world's languagesincluding the Simplified Chinese character set and the TraditionalChinese character set.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of computer network 90 associated with thepresent invention. Computer network 90 comprises local machine 95electrically coupled to network 96. Local machine 95 is electricallycoupled to remote machine 94 and remote machine 93 via network 96. Localmachine 95 is also electrically coupled to server 91 and database 92 vianetwork 96. Network 96 may be a simplified network connection such as alocal area network (LAN) or may be a larger network such as a wide areanetwork (WAN) or the Internet. Furthermore, computer network 90 depictedin FIG. 1 is intended as a representation of a possible operatingnetwork that may contain the present invention and is not meant as anarchitectural limitation.

The internal configuration of a computer, including connection andorientation of the processor, memory, and input/output devices, is wellknown in the art. The present invention is a methodology that can beembodied in a computer program. Referring to FIG. 2, the methodology ofthe present invention is implemented on software by Selection Program(SP) 200, Testing Program (TP) 300, and Character Sizing Program (CSP)350. SP 200, TP 300, and CSP 350 described herein can be stored withinthe memory of any computer depicted in FIG. 1. Alternatively, SP 200, TP300, and CSP 350 can be stored in an external storage device such as aremovable disk or a CD-ROM. Memory 100 is illustrative of the memorywithin one of the computers of FIG. 1. Memory 100 also contains UnicodeSelection Program 102, Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese ConversionTable 104, Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/English Dictionary 108, UserStatistics 110, and Chinese-English textbooks 112. The present inventionmay interface with Unicode Selection Program 102, SimplifiedChinese/Traditional Chinese Conversion Table 104, Traditional ChinesePin Yin/English Dictionary 108, User Statistics 110, and Chinese-Englishtextbooks 112 through memory 100. As part of the present invention, thememory 100 can be configured with SP 200, TP 300, and/or CSP 350.Processor 106 can execute the instructions contained in SP 200, TP 300,and/or CSP 350.

In alternative embodiments, SP 200, TP 300, and/or CSP 350 can be storedin the memory of other computers. Storing SP 200, TP 300, and/or CSP 350in the memory of other computers allows the processor workload to bedistributed across a plurality of processors instead of a singleprocessor. Further configurations of SP 200, TP 300, and/or CSP 350across various memories are known by persons skilled in the art.

In the preferred embodiment, the present invention is a web pageaccessible from the Internet. SP 200 starts (202) when the user accessesthe web page. The user then logs into the present invention by enteringa user name and optionally a password (204). SP 200 then presents theuser with a list of Chinese-English textbook chapters, questionlanguages, and answer languages (206). The Chinese-English textbooks maybe like Chinese-English textbooks 112 in FIG. 2. The Chinese-Englishtextbooks contain a plurality of chapters in which each chapteraddresses a different subject or theme. The user is presented withtwenty to thirty vocabulary words for each chapter. Thus, by selectingthe chapter, the user informs SP 200 of the vocabulary to be tested. Thequestion language is the language in which the present invention willask the user questions. The user may select English, TraditionalChinese, Simplified. Chinese, Pin Yin, or any other language known topersons of ordinary skill in the art. The answer language is thelanguage in which the user will answer the questions. The user mayselect English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Pin Yin, or anyother language known to persons of ordinary skill in the art. TheGraphical User Interface (GUI) for performing step 206 may be like GUI400 in FIG. 6.

Returning to FIG. 3, SP 200 then displays the vocabulary for the user toreview (208). The GUI for reviewing the vocabulary may be like GUI 500in FIG. 7. Returning to FIG. 3, SP 200 then runs TP 300 (210). When theuser has completed a chapter or decides to quit TP 300, SP 200 displaysa progress screen (212). The progress screen displays the user'sstatistics 214 regarding the vocabulary from each of the chapters. TheGUI for reviewing the statistics may be like GUI 700 in FIG. 12.Returning to FIG. 3, SP 200 then determines if the user wants to exit(216). If the user does not want to exit, then SP 200 returns to step206. If the user wants to exit, then SP 200 ends (218).

Turning to FIG. 4, the logic of Testing Program (TP) 300 is illustrated.TP 300 is a program which tests the user's knowledge of the vocabularyfor a specific Chinese-English textbook chapter. TP 300 starts (302)when directed by SP 200. TP 300 then runs CSP 350 (303). CSP 350 is aprogram that resizes the Chinese character size on the GUI. Although CSP350 is shown at step 303 in FIG. 4, the user may change the size of theChinese characters at any time while running TP 300.

TP 300 determines probability factors for the vocabulary terms (304).Each vocabulary term is associated with a probability factor between oneand nine. Initially, each vocabulary term is given a probability factorof five. The probability factors are used in computing the overallprobability, and thus the frequency, of asking each vocabulary term. Inother words, a vocabulary term with a probability factor of four is fourtimes more likely to be asked than a vocabulary term with a probabilityfactor of one. The probability factors are increased when the userincorrectly answers a question and decreased when the user correctlyanswers a question (see steps 316 and 318 below). Therefore, thevocabulary terms that the user is less familiar with are tested morefrequently than those that the user is more familiar with.

TP 300 then determines a question to ask the user (306). TP 300 gets thevocabulary for the chapter from Chinese-English textbooks 308 stored inmemory. Chinese-English textbooks 308 may be like Chinese-Englishtextbooks 112 in FIG. 2. TP 300 determines which vocabulary question toask based on the weighted probability of each question.

TP 300 then displays the question in the question language (310). Theuser enters the answer on the GUI and TP 300 accepts the user's answerin the answer language (312). TP 300 then determines if the answer iscorrect (314). To determine if the answer is correct, TP 300 accessesSimplified/Traditional Chinese Conversion table 320 and TraditionalChinese/Pin Yin/English Dictionary 322 to determine if the vocabularyterm in the question matches the vocabulary term in the answer. Thequestion vocabulary term and the answer vocabulary term will match ifthey are the same entry in Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/Englishdictionary 322. Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/English dictionary 322 is adictionary, encoded in Unicode, containing entries for all of theTraditional Chinese characters with the accented Pin Yin and Englishtranslations. Where there may be more than one meaning for a given userinput, Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/English dictionary 322 gives the mostcommonly used word for the user input. Alternatively, TraditionalChinese/Pin Yin/English dictionary 322 could give some or all of themeanings for the user input. Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/Englishdictionary 322 may be like Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/Englishdictionary 108 in FIG. 2.

If either the question vocabulary term or the answer vocabulary term isin Simplified Chinese, TP 300 will need Simplified/Traditional ChineseConversion Table 320 to translate the Simplified Chinese intoTraditional Chinese. Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese ConversionTable 320 is a JAVA™ hashtable, encoded in Unicode, which contains across-reference between all of the Simplified Chinese characters andtheir equivalent Traditional Chinese characters. SimplifiedChinese/Traditional Chinese Conversion Table 320 may be like SimplifiedChinese/Traditional Chinese Conversion Table 104 in FIG. 2. The data inthe hashtable is in the UCS-2 Unicode format. Because there are about1,250 Simplified Chinese characters, the hashtable containsapproximately 2,500 entries—one for each Simplified Chinese characterand the Traditional Chinese equivalent.

If TP 300 determines that the answer is correct, then TP 300 indicatesthat the answer is correct, decrements the probability factor associatedwith the vocabulary term (316), and proceeds to step 324. The GUI for anincorrect answer may be like GUI 600 in FIGS. 8 and 9. Returning to FIG.4, if TP 300 determines that the answer is incorrect, then TP 300indicates that the answer is incorrect, displays the incorrect andcorrect answers, increments the probability factor for the vocabularyterm (318), and proceeds to step 324. The GUI for an incorrect answermay be like GUI 600 in FIGS. 10 and 11.

Returning to FIG. 4, at step 324, TP 300 calculates and displays theuser's statistics 326 for the chapter (324). User's statistics 326 maybe like user statistics 110 in FIG. 2. TP 300 then determines whetherall the probability factors are equal to one (328). If all theprobability factors are equal to one, then TP 300 proceeds to step 332.If all the probability factors are not equal to one, then TP 300determines if the user wants another question (330). The user will wantanother question if the user does not indicate a desire to quit. If theuser wants another question, then TP 300 returns to step 303. If theuser does not want another question, then TP 300 proceeds to step 332.At step 332, TP 300 saves the data for the current session (332). Thedata for the current session includes the User Statistics 326. TP 300then ends (334).

As part of the present invention, the user may indicate the desireddisplay size of the Simplified Chinese and/or the Traditional Chinesecharacters; Because the Chinese characters are encoded in Unicode, thefont size of the characters may be easily changed. Previously, usershave been able to change the font size of Simplified Chinese charactersif the characters were encoded in GB2312, but could not display theTraditional Chinese characters. Similarly, users have been able tochange the font size of Traditional Chinese characters if the characterswere encoded in Big 5, but could not display the Simplified Chinesecharacters.

FIG. 5 illustrates the logic of the Character Sizing Program (CSP) 350of the present invention. CSP 350 starts (352) when directed by TP 300.CSP 350 then determines whether the user has selected standard sizeChinese characters (354). Standard size characters are the default sizecharacters and are typically twelve-point font size. Persons of ordinaryskill may configure the standard size characters to any font size. IfCSP 350 determines that the user has not selected standard size Chinesecharacters, the CSP 350 proceeds to step 358. If CSP 350 determines thatthe user has selected standard size Chinese characters, CSP 350 displaysthe Simplified Chinese characters and/or the Traditional Chinesecharacters in the standard font size (356). CSP 350 then ends (370).

At step 358, CSP 350 determines whether the user has selected largersize Chinese characters (358). Larger size characters are typicallysixteen-point font size. Persons of ordinary skill may configure thelarger size characters to any font size. If CSP 350 determines that theuser has not selected larger size Chinese characters, the CSP 350proceeds to step 362. If CSP 350 determines that the user has selectedlarger size Chinese characters, CSP 350 displays the Simplified Chinesecharacters and/or the Traditional Chinese characters in the larger fontsize (360). CSP 350 then ends (370).

At step 362, CSP 350 determines whether the user has selected big sizeChinese characters (362). Big size characters are typically twenty-pointfont size. Persons of ordinary skill may configure the big sizecharacters to any font size. If CSP 350 determines that the user has notselected big size Chinese characters, the CSP 350 proceeds to step 366.If CSP 350 determines that the user has selected big size Chinesecharacters, CSP 350 displays the Simplified Chinese characters and/orthe Traditional Chinese characters in the big font size (364). CSP 350then ends (370).

At step 366, CSP 350 determines whether the user has selected giganticsize Chinese characters (366). Gigantic size characters are typicallytwenty-four-point font size. Persons of ordinary skill may configure thegigantic size characters to any font size. If CSP 350 determines thatthe user has not selected gigantic size Chinese characters, the CSP 350returns to step 354. If CSP 350 determines that the user has selectedgigantic size Chinese characters, CSP 350 displays the SimplifiedChinese characters and/or the Traditional Chinese characters in thegigantic font size (368). CSP 350 then ends (370).

FIGS. 6 through 12 illustrate GUI 400, GUI 500, GUI 600, and GUI 700that may be associated with the present invention. GUI 400, GUI 500, GUI600, and GUI 700 are examples of the contents of the web page embodimentof the present invention. GUI 400, GUI 500, GUI 600, and GUI 700 arealso examples of the display of the stand-alone computer programembodiment of the present invention which is operable on a singlecomputer.

Turning to FIG. 6, GUI 400 is illustrated. GUI 400 is an example of aGUI in which the user is presented with a plurality of decisions tomake. The user can select a chapter from chapter menu 402. The user canalso select a question language by clicking on one of the questionlanguage radio buttons 404. The user may also select and answer languageby selecting one of the answer language radio buttons 406. When the userhas selected the chapter, question language, and answer language, theuser may click the review vocabulary button 408 to proceed to GUI 500.Alternatively, the user may click exit button 410 to exit the program ofthe present invention.

Turning to FIG. 7, GUI 500 is illustrated. GUI 500 is a screen thatallows the user to review the vocabulary before taking the test. Whenthe user has finished reviewing the vocabulary, the user may click thestart vocabulary test button 502 to proceed to GUI 600.

FIGS. 8 through 11 illustrate GUI 600 which performs the testingfunction of the present invention. Turing to FIG. 8, GUI 600 containscurrent statistics 602 which may be updated and obtained from userstatistics 326 in FIG. 4. Current statistics 602 contains the percent ofquestions answered correctly and the number of questions with aprobability factor of one. GUI 600 also contains question 604 in thequestion language. GUI 600 also contains a user input field 606, submitbutton 608, and Chinese characters 610. Chinese characters 610 are theTraditional Chinese characters and the Simplified Chinese charactersfrom the vocabulary list in GUI 500. GUI 600 also contains standard sizeradio button 620, larger size radio button 622, big size radio button624, and gigantic size radio button 626, which may be used to change thefont size of Chinese characters 610. GUI 600 also contains quit button612, which allows the user to quit the testing program.

The user may type English words, Pin Yin words, or Chinese charactersdirectly into user input field 606 and click submit button 608 to submitthe answer. Alternatively, the user may click on Chinese characters 610and the present invention will place the specific Chinese character inthe user input field. Further in the alternative, the user may input acharacter into user input field 606 utilizing the copy-and-pasteoperation of a computer. In a copy-and-paste operation, the userhighlights the desired character, chooses “copy” from a menu, places thecursor in user input field 606, and selects “paste” from a menu. Thehighlighted character then appears in user input field 606. Persons ofordinary skill in the art are aware of methods for implementingcopy-and-paste operations on a computer. The user may also input thecharacter into user input field 606 by any method known by persons ofordinary skill in the art.

As part of the present invention, when the user inputs a character intouser input field 606, SP 200 will recognize the entered characterregardless of the encoding format used in the highlighted “copy” text.For example, a user may be viewing another web page written inTraditional Chinese and come across a character the user does notrecognize. The user may then highlight the unrecognized character, copythe character, paste the character in user input field 606, and clicksubmit button 608 to determine the Simplified Chinese characterequivalent for the Traditional Chinese character. The present inventionaccepts the Big 5 encoding used in the other web page because Big 5 iscompatible with Unicode. In another example, a user may be viewinganother web page written in Simplified Chinese and come across acharacter the user does not recognize. The user may then highlight theunrecognized character, copy the character, paste the character in userinput field 606, and click submit button 608 to determine theTraditional Chinese character equivalent for the Simplified Chinesecharacter. The present invention accepts the GB2312 encoding used in theother web page because GB2312 is compatible with Unicode. If the presentinvention was implemented in either Big 5 or GB2312 encoding, thepresent invention would be limited to either Simplified Chinese orTraditional Chinese, depending on the encoding language. The user mayalso use the copy and paste function to input English words, accentedPin Yin, hybrid Pin Yin, or unaccented Pin Yin in the ASCII or Unicodeformats.

When the user submits an answer, the present invention determines if theanswer is correct. FIG. 8 is an example of a GUI 600 with a correctanswer. FIG. 9 is an example of GUI 600 after the user has submitted acorrect answer. GUI 600 in FIG. 9 is the same as GUT 600 in FIG. 8 withthe exception that GUI 600 in FIG. 9 also contains a statement that theuser correctly answered the question 614 and current statistics 602 havebeen updated.

FIG. 10 is an example of a GUI 600 with an incorrect answer. FIG. 11 isan example of GUI 600 after the user has submitted an incorrect answer.GUI 600 in FIG. 11 is the same as GUI 600 in FIG. 10 with the exceptionthat GUI 600 in FIG. 11 also contains a statement that the userincorrectly answered the question 614 and current statistics 602 havebeen updated. GUI 600 in FIG. 11 also contains the correct answer 616 tothe question and the incorrect answer 618 submitted by the user.

FIG. 12 is an example of GUI 700 used to indicate the user's progressthrough the chapters of the Chinese-English textbook. GUI 700 containsprogress report 702 of all of the chapters. Progress report 702indicates the number of vocabulary terms with a probability factor ofone and the percentage correct for each chapter. The user may return toGUI 400 in FIG. 6 by clicking on the return to main menu button 704.

With respect to the above description, it is to be realized that theoptimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention, toinclude variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and mannerof operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obviousto one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to thoseillustrated in the drawings and described in the specification areintended to be encompassed by the present invention. The novel spirit ofthe present invention is still embodied by reordering or deleting someof the steps contained in this disclosure. The spirit of the inventionis not meant to be limited in any way except by proper construction ofthe following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method for reviewing vocabulary comprising: using a computer and a graphical user interface on a display connected to the computer, and responsive to a user selecting a chapter from a plurality of chapters in a Chinese-English textbook, a question language from English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or Pin Yin, and an answer language from English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or Pin Yin, displaying a plurality of vocabulary words from the chapter, displaying a question containing a vocabulary word in the question language; responsive to the user inputting an answer in the answer language, determining if the answer is a correct answer; responsive to the vocabulary word or the answer being in Simplified Chinese, translating the vocabulary word or the answer into Traditional Chinese by accessing a Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese conversion table; wherein a determination if the answer is a correct answer is performed by determining whether the vocabulary word and the answer both match an entry in a Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/English dictionary encoded in Unicode.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: displaying statistics regarding the user's performance in answering a plurality of questions.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: calculating the probability factors for the plurality of vocabulary words; and wherein the probability factor determines a probability that the vocabulary word will appear in a question.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: calculating the probability factors for the plurality of vocabulary words; and wherein the probability factor determines the frequency with which the vocabulary word will be asked in a question.
 5. The method of claim 1 further comprising: wherein responsive to a determination that the answer is correct, decrementing a probability factor for the vocabulary word.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: wherein responsive to a determination that the answer is incorrect, incrementing a probability factor for the vocabulary word.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising: wherein responsive to a determination that all of the vocabulary words in a chapter have a probability factor equal to one, indicating that the chapter is completed.
 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising: changing the font size of the Chinese characters displayed on a graphical user interface.
 9. A program product stored on a computer-usable medium and operable on a computer, the program product comprising: instructions to cause the computer to display a graphical user interface on the computer; responsive to a user selecting, at the graphical user interface, a chapter from a plurality of chapters in a Chinese-English textbook, a question language from either English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or Pin Yin, and an answer language from either English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or Pin Yin, instructions for displaying a plurality of vocabulary words from the chapter; instructions for displaying, at the graphical user interface, a question containing a vocabulary word in the question language; responsive to a user inputting, at the graphical user interface, an answer in the answer language, instructions for determining if the answer is a correct answer; responsive to the vocabulary word or the answer being in Simplified Chinese, translating the vocabulary word or the answer into Traditional Chinese by accessing a Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese conversion table; and responsive to determining that the vocabulary word and the answer both match an entry in a Traditional Chinese/Pin Yin/English dictionary encoded in Unicode, instructions for indicating, at the graphical user interface, that the answer is a correct answer.
 10. The program product of claim 9 further comprising: instructions for displaying statistics regarding a user's performance in answering a plurality of questions.
 11. The program product of claim 9 further comprising: instructions for calculating the probability factors for the plurality of vocabulary words; and wherein the probability factor determines the probability that a particular vocabulary word will appear in a question.
 12. The program product of claim 9 further comprising: instructions for calculating the probability factors for the plurality of vocabulary words; and wherein the probability factor determines the frequency with which the vocabulary word will be asked in a question.
 13. The program product of claim 9 further comprising: wherein responsive to a determination that the answer is correct, instructions for decrementing a probability factor for the vocabulary word.
 14. The program product of claim 9 further comprising: wherein responsive to a determination that the answer is incorrect, instructions for incrementing a probability factor for the vocabulary word.
 15. The program product of claim 9 further comprising: wherein responsive to a determination that all of the vocabulary words in a chapter have a probability factor equal to one, instructions for indicating that the chapter is completed.
 16. The program product of claim 9 further comprising: instructions for changing the font size of the Chinese characters displayed on a graphical user interface. 